As Managing Director of Allstate NI and Global Vice President, Stephen McKeown has orchestrated a corporate culture that's caught the attention of industry giants like Gartner and earned recognition through the prestigious Tony Hsieh Award.
The transformation wasn't just about technology. It was about people, culture, and fundamentally reimagining how a global insurance leader operates in the digital age.
The insurance industry has been changing rapidly, and Allstate has been at the forefront of that change. Over the past two and a half years, the company has undergone what Stephen describes as a "radical transformation", one centred around changing culture and the way teams approach problems.
READ MORE: How Allstate NI’s Activate Event Is Redefining Workplace Culture
"Having a culture of problem-solving and really having cross-functional teams has proven to be incredibly powerful," says Stephen. "So rather than having technology, business functions, and finance all working separately, we're very much focused on putting people around a table to solve business problems. This has a significant and dramatic impact on the way that you build and deliver product."
This shift represents a departure from the norm. Where many organisations struggle to break down departmental barriers, Allstate NI has made collaboration the cornerstone of its operating model.
Allstate’s teams are "embedded right in the middle of those initiatives and leading on them," spanning everything from cloud-first strategies to modern tech stacks that enable intimate customer understanding. As a result, teams in the Northern Ireland-headquartered European Digital Centreof Excellence operates at a strategic level - directly influencing products and services used by millions of customers worldwide.
According to Stephen, teams operate with a coaching mindset rather than hierarchical management, enabling faster decision-making and fostering a culture of ownership where employees take responsibility for outcomes. This shift towards empowerment has proven particularly effective in hybrid working environments, where traditional management approaches can fall short. This approach has made Northern Ireland integral to the company's technology strategy.
This means that technologists in the region aren't just supporting a multinational company, they're actively shaping how one of the world's largest insurers operates in the digital age. This approach earned Allstate the Tony Hsieh Award, named after the visionary former CEO of Zappos, presented at the prestigious TED2025 Conference. Allstate is the largest company to receive this honour, which recognises organisations that are "redefining the future of work through empowering and forward-thinking cultures."
For the Allstate NI Managing Director, culture is the capstone that holds everything together.
"Culture is really the foundation of everything we do," says McKeown. "Technology alone doesn't drive transformations, people do. People have the ability to create connections across teams, to generate ideas, to innovate. That all comes from your culture, not technology."
This commitment to culture manifests in very tangible ways that extend far beyond workplace policies. In September this year, nearly 1,000 employees gathered at Belfast's ICC for the Allstate Activate event - a celebration devised around curiosity, creativity, and connection. It brought together inspirational speakers including physicist Professor Brian Cox, Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes, and comedian Shane Todd, alongside interactive experiences ranging from VR simulators to volcanic bubble machines and even a DeLorean that nodded to the company's automotive heritage.
Stephen opened the day with a message of togetherness and engagement, setting the tone for what he describes as "a bold statement about who we are and where we're headed."
In an era where hybrid working has become the norm, events like Activate serve as crucial touchpoints that reinforce shared values and collective purpose. The initiative was conceived as a means for conversations between areas to occur and spark innovative thinking through exposure to diverse perspectives. The day's culminating awards ceremony celebrating unsung heroes points to how Allstate weaves recognition into its cultural fabric.
This people-first philosophy has driven the company to make investments in digital skills development. Over the past two and a half years, Allstate has committed resources not just to technical training, but to fundamentally changing how people work. "We're putting people into real-world scenarios with real-world problems to solve and then having them collaborate and work on those problems as a team," he says.
For technologists considering Allstate NI, a career presents the opportunity to work on global-scale problems for one of the world's largest companies, “alongside teammates who are creative and curious”.
Stephen describes a culture that values experimentation and prizes the power of questions, then couples these with the freedom to pursue solutions. "Our teams here are important to Allstate,” says Stephen, “and that's a huge recognition in terms of a Centre of Excellence headquartered here in Northern Ireland."
Allstate's commitment to skills development continues to deepen, with plans to double down on digital skills investment over the next three years. This investment goes beyond technical capabilities to encompass new ways of working, particularly around collaboration and problem-solving in hybrid environments.
Recent recognition of Allstate's approach has been remarkable. The Gartner recognition demonstrates that large companies can lead in innovation, while the Tony Hsieh Award specifically celebrates the human-centric, forward-thinking work that has defined the company's digital transformation.
"Some external validation of what we're doing really is something quite special," says Stephen, "and the two coming together is incredibly powerful." The recognition isn'tjust about corporate achievement, it reflects the strength of innovation embedded in Allstate's culture and positions the company as a leading career destination for business and technology talent, he says.
The success at Allstate NI has broader implications for Northern Ireland's position as a global technology destination. Stephen points to the region's strength in software development, cybersecurity leadership, and financial services innovation, areas where Allstate both contributes to and benefits from the local ecosystem.
"I think [Northern Ireland] is increasingly seen as a destination for investment and for that type of talent," he says. "More importantly, it's seen as a place that's able to lead in some of these strategic areas."
This positioning represents a significant shift for Northern Ireland's technology sector. Where the region once might have been viewed as a cost-effective location for back-office operations, companies like Allstate are demonstrating that it can serve as a centre of innovation and strategic leadership for global enterprises.
In an era where technology moves faster than traditional organisational structures can adapt, Stephen’s approach is to empower people, embrace experimentation, and to let culture drive innovation.
"People have the ability to create connections across teams, to generate ideas, to innovate. That all comes from your culture, not technology," he says.
The company's continued investment in skills development, combined with its growing global influence, suggests that this transformation is just the beginning. For technologists seeking meaningful work at a global scale, and for Northern Ireland's ambitions as a digital hub, Allstate NI's culture-driven success offers both inspiration and a proven model for the future.
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